In relativism, a single utterance of a knowledge claim can be assessed differently depending on the assessor’s epistemic standards. So the truth value of a knowledge claim can vary depending on who is doing the assessing.
In contextualism, the truth value of a knowledge claim only varies if the context of utterance is different. A single utterance of a knowledge claim will have a fixed truth value, independent of who is assessing the claim. You only get variance when you vary the context in which the utterance is made, just like you only get variance in the meaning of “It’s raining here” if you vary the context in which it is uttered.
Er… well, not yet, but might be a step towards helping.
I get that, if the conditions “different assessor” and “different context of utterance” are separable, then relativism makes distinct claims from contextualism. That is, if I have a different assessor but the same context (or even the same assessor whose epistemic standards have changed, and the same context), then contextualism asserts that the truth value of my claims is necessarily unchanged, and relativism asserts that it might change.
What I can’t fathom is how that happens, even in principle. Isn’t the assessor, and the assessor’s epistemic standards, part of the context of the utterance?
What I can’t fathom is how that happens, even in principle. Isn’t the assessor, and the assessor’s epistemic standards, part of the context of the utterance?
So imagine you read an ancient text in which the claim “the voice of Zeus follows upon his blows” appears as a description of the relation between thunder and lightening. THe assessor and facts about the assessor are nowhere part of the context of the utterance, because the utterance was made thousands of years before you were born.
An invariantist would say ‘that’s false, there’s no such thing as Zeus’.
A relativist would say ’That’s false to me (no Zeus), but it might have been true for the person who wrote it if they had different standards for truth.”
A contextualist would say ‘So Zeus doesn’t exist, but the voice and blows of Zeus are just terms for lightening and thunder. If someone made this comment knowing what we know about stoms, it would be false. But I assess this statement as true, because I take the utterer to be talking about lightening and thunder.’
The assessor doesn’t have to be a person standing there listening to the utterance. Suppose I told you that my friend Alice says that she knows OJ Simpson killed his wife, and I ask you what you think about her knowledge claim. If you were a relativist, you would evaluate the truth of the knowledge claim in accord with your epistemic standards, or you might even say, “Well, relative to standards X her knowledge claim is true, but relative to standards Y it’s false.”
If you were a contextualist, on the other hand, you’d ask me “In what context did she make this knowledge claim?” and then base your evaluation of the knowledge claim on my answer. You allow the context to set the epistemic standard you use for evaluation.
Another example: Suppose Bob says “Alice knows P” in one context, and Charlie says “Alice doesn’t know P” in another context. For a contextualist, it might be the case that Bob and Charlie are not disagreeing at all. If the contexts are sufficiently different, you can’t pit their knowledge claims against one another. A relativist, on the other hand, can pit the knowledge claims against one another, by relativizing them to the same epistemic standard. Only one of them will be true according to that standard.
Ah! (lightbulb goes on) Throughout, I have been implicitly understanding “context” to mean context of evaluation. Which is not what we mean at all, we mean context of utterance. Which, indeed, you even said explicitly, and I failed to read carefully enough.
Yes, this makes perfect sense.
Thinking about this now, I think I endorse contextualism, even though attempting to implement it gives me a headache. That is, whether I’m comfortable saying that you actually know X is a function of what evidence for and against X I believe you’re aware of, but my brain strongly tends to replace (my beliefs about) what evidence you’re aware of with what evidence I’m aware of.
Don’t see much difference between contextualism and relativism.
In relativism, a single utterance of a knowledge claim can be assessed differently depending on the assessor’s epistemic standards. So the truth value of a knowledge claim can vary depending on who is doing the assessing.
In contextualism, the truth value of a knowledge claim only varies if the context of utterance is different. A single utterance of a knowledge claim will have a fixed truth value, independent of who is assessing the claim. You only get variance when you vary the context in which the utterance is made, just like you only get variance in the meaning of “It’s raining here” if you vary the context in which it is uttered.
Does that help?
Er… well, not yet, but might be a step towards helping.
I get that, if the conditions “different assessor” and “different context of utterance” are separable, then relativism makes distinct claims from contextualism. That is, if I have a different assessor but the same context (or even the same assessor whose epistemic standards have changed, and the same context), then contextualism asserts that the truth value of my claims is necessarily unchanged, and relativism asserts that it might change.
What I can’t fathom is how that happens, even in principle. Isn’t the assessor, and the assessor’s epistemic standards, part of the context of the utterance?
So imagine you read an ancient text in which the claim “the voice of Zeus follows upon his blows” appears as a description of the relation between thunder and lightening. THe assessor and facts about the assessor are nowhere part of the context of the utterance, because the utterance was made thousands of years before you were born.
An invariantist would say ‘that’s false, there’s no such thing as Zeus’.
A relativist would say ’That’s false to me (no Zeus), but it might have been true for the person who wrote it if they had different standards for truth.”
A contextualist would say ‘So Zeus doesn’t exist, but the voice and blows of Zeus are just terms for lightening and thunder. If someone made this comment knowing what we know about stoms, it would be false. But I assess this statement as true, because I take the utterer to be talking about lightening and thunder.’
(nods) I think I get it now… thanks! (More thoughts here)
The assessor doesn’t have to be a person standing there listening to the utterance. Suppose I told you that my friend Alice says that she knows OJ Simpson killed his wife, and I ask you what you think about her knowledge claim. If you were a relativist, you would evaluate the truth of the knowledge claim in accord with your epistemic standards, or you might even say, “Well, relative to standards X her knowledge claim is true, but relative to standards Y it’s false.”
If you were a contextualist, on the other hand, you’d ask me “In what context did she make this knowledge claim?” and then base your evaluation of the knowledge claim on my answer. You allow the context to set the epistemic standard you use for evaluation.
Another example: Suppose Bob says “Alice knows P” in one context, and Charlie says “Alice doesn’t know P” in another context. For a contextualist, it might be the case that Bob and Charlie are not disagreeing at all. If the contexts are sufficiently different, you can’t pit their knowledge claims against one another. A relativist, on the other hand, can pit the knowledge claims against one another, by relativizing them to the same epistemic standard. Only one of them will be true according to that standard.
Ah!
(lightbulb goes on)
Throughout, I have been implicitly understanding “context” to mean context of evaluation.
Which is not what we mean at all, we mean context of utterance.
Which, indeed, you even said explicitly, and I failed to read carefully enough.
Yes, this makes perfect sense.
Thinking about this now, I think I endorse contextualism, even though attempting to implement it gives me a headache. That is, whether I’m comfortable saying that you actually know X is a function of what evidence for and against X I believe you’re aware of, but my brain strongly tends to replace (my beliefs about) what evidence you’re aware of with what evidence I’m aware of.
I no longer remember what my vote was.
Thanks for your patience.